Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t5.24

v1.c28.s8.t5.24

Ray (1956: 115) referred to the sixth century AD Kubjikā Tantra manuscript found in the collections of the Maharaja of Nepal referring to ‘the transmutation of copper into gold with the aid of mercury’ which Lo Bue (1981b: 82) interprets as an allusion to the fire-gilding process. Quoting Subbarayappa (1971: 309-38), Oddy et al. (1981: 89-90) also supports the idea of linking Indian alchemy, initiated during the sixth-seventh century AD, with the tradition of fire-gilding or ‘converting the base metal into gold using mercury’.